


Mys & MEANS series 





° Chicago 
^Flanagan* 

"fUBLlSHER^ 



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WAYS AND MEANS SERIES 



11 



nxro, x. 



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One Hundred Devices for Busy Work, 



ABBIE G. HALL 

t 4 



jPYRfGHr SS^> 

NOV 8 1889 ' 



•hinGTO* 



CHICAGO : 
A. FLANAGAN, Publisher. 

1889. 



Copy right, 18S9, 

BY 

A. FLANAGAN. 






Z-3ZVfC 



ONE HUNDRED DEVICES FOR BUSY WORK. 



1. Make lists of names of objects in the room begin- 
ning with a certain letter. 

2. Lists of words containing a given sound. 

3. Names of trades and occupations. 

4. Names of seasons, with simple characteristics ot each. 

5. Write stories from pictures. 

(J. List of names of flowers or other natural objects of 
a certain color. 

7. Observations on flowers, plants or animals written 
and comparisons made. 

8. A quart of common shoe pegs may be bought for a 
few cents, and these may be used in many ways; for ex- 
ample (a), Give a handful to each of the children and let 
them place them so as to form the Roman numerals. 

9. When the children have learned to make the Roman 
numerals correctly give each child a box of cards on which 
are the figures l, 2, 3, 4, etc., and require them to place 
each of these in its proper place beside the numeral. Copy 
the entire work on slates. 

10. Supply the child with pegs for making numerals 
and boxes containing separate cards on which are figures, 
words, and pictures of objects, up to 10 or 20. The 
pictures may be anything, as balls. Suppose the child 
takes up a card on which are ten balls. He must find the 
card that has the figure 10 on it and the card on which is 
the word ten', and must make the Roman numeral X with 
his pegs. 



4: One Hundred Devices 

11. Make a simple picture of any object, as a chair, 
table, horse, etc., on the board, and let the children copy it 
by placing pegs in rows on their desks. Or pictures may 
be hung up for the children to copy. 

12. Let the children place pegs to imitate familiar ob- 
jects, as tables, chairs, etc., not having pictures for copies. 
The pegs may be colored with a few cents' worth of 
diamond dyes, and thus made more attractive to the little 
ones. 

13. Paste colored paper on thick manilla paper and cut 
into geometric forms. Use for teaching color, form and 
original design. Some geometric figure may be drawn on 
the board and they may copy it by placing the papers in 
position. For example, a figure made up of squares may 
be copied by placing squares. A great many designs may 
be built up of small squares. From a box containing 
small equilateral triangles another class of figures may be 
built, or squares and triangles may be combined, etc. 

14. When the little ones are far enough advanced to 
change the reading lesson from the blackboard to the chart, 
have boxes containing, on separate cards, the first few les- 
sons of the chart. These boxes being given out, the chart 
is placed before the class and they are required to copy the 
lesson before them with the cards in their boxes. 

15. For each name word taught, have cards containing 
the written woid and a picture of the object. Let the 
children copy on their slates the cards they select. 

16. Have cards with pictures and written sentences. 
These, when the class is more advanced, take the place of 
the cards with words. 

17. Children may copy lessons directly from charts or 
readers on to their slates. 

18. Have some pretty forms, as stars, rings, animals, 



For Busy Work. 5 

etc., cut out of pasteboard or thick manilla paper. Let the 
children lay these on their slates and draw around them. 

19. Let the children lay natural leaves upon paper or 
slate and draw around them. After the leaf has thus been 
sketched i i one position, it may be placed in another and 
again drawn. By thus repeating it pretty designs, wreaths, 
clusters may be made. 

20. Cut pictures of easy outline from newspapers. 
Direct the children to use them as they did the cuttings and 

leaves. 

21. All or any of the above mentioned cuttings, etc., 
may be laid flat upon paper and the outline pricked in with 
a pin. 

22. Furnish corn, split beans, or any other kind of 
seeds to arrange in pretty forms upon their desks. 

23. Have paper checked off in squares. Let the chil- 
dren arrange the seeds or pegs upon these in geometrical 
forms. 

24. Rule one side of their slates in small squares. Let 
them draw around these, thus making designs or other 
drawings. 

25. Cut advertising cards into pieces of puzzling shapes. 
Let them fit these together. 

26. Have picture scrap books. These may be made of 
old books by cutting out part of the leaves. One book may 
contain pictures of geographical interest, another may be 
historical, another general, another filled with pretty pic- 
ture cards. The children will like to help to fill these 

books. 

27. Story scrap books, scrap books of history, biogra- 
phy, etc., will be very interesting to older children. 

28. Pricking with pins. Prick figures, letters, words, 
designs, etc., or prick a certain number of dots, lines of 
dots, circles, squares, etc. 



(') One Hundred Devices 

29. Have some soaked peas and a bunch of tooth- 
picks. By sticking the tooth-picks into the peas various 
designs are made. One tooth-pick stuck into one pea 
makes a hat or a shawl pin, a cane, a drum-stick, etc. One 
tooth-pick with a pea on each end makes a dumb-bell. 
With four peas and four tooth-picks we may make a pic- 
ture frame. With three of each a house, a chair, etc., can 
be made. 

30. Stringing beads. Have a few colored glass beads 
and some strong thread. String in groups of twos, threes, 
etc., for number work. Or spools may be strung on cords. 

31. For seat work in numbers. Screws may be driven 
in the desk as far back as the child can conveniently reach, 
so as to be out of the way. Across these wires, on which 
beads or buttons are strung, are stretched. 

32. Drawing on their slates groups of straight lines in 
certain numbers and placing beneath the figures indicating 
the number. 

33. Give the children picture cards and let them write 
names of all things they can see on the cards. 

34. Give the child a page from an old book or news- 
paper, and tell him to make a pin hole through a certain 
word or letter every time he can find it. 

3 >. Draw on the board a circle and ask the children to 
use that for a foundation and see how many things they 
can make. Show them that a circle can be turned into a 
cherry by putting a stem to it. Tell them to make an 
apple, a flower, a cup, etc. 

36. Use the square or the oval in the same way. 
From the square can be made a box, a house, a cup, etc. 

37. Have them draw pictures of hoes, rakes, umbrellas, 
brooms, etc., with the handles having the same slant that 
the down strokes in writing do. 



For Busy Work. 7 

38. Have some wooden blocks and let the children 
build houses and draw pictures of the same on their slates. 

39. Have something that will represent money. Old 
postage stamps or round cards the size of nickels, dimes, 
quarters, etc., with figures on them, will do. Toy money 
may be bought at any place where kindergarten supplies 
are sold. Let them use this money for counting, buying, etc. 

40. Paper cutting. Cutting designs of figures of fruit, 
animals, paper dolls, furniture, etc. 

41. Have slips of colored paper of equal length and 
width, and give them to the children to weave into mats. 

42. Splints may be used for weaving instead of paper. 
They can also be used for laying in geometric shapes upon 
their desks. 

43. Paper folding and perforating work. Papers may 
be cut and folded into many pretty forms. The designs on 
perforated cardboard maybe embroidered with colored silk. 

44. Let the children tie knots in strings. A simple 
knot with one string, knots with two strings, a double 
knot, a square knot, etc. 

45. Have cards with questions written on them. Dis- 
tribute these and the next day let the pupils tell the 
answers, the class to add any information they have to give. 
This orally; the next day the work may be written as a 
composition. This is work suited to older pupils. Have a 
set of cards for the history class, another for geography. 

46. Cut out of stiff brown paper a set of animals. On 
these draw lines enough to make the features, roundness of 
form, etc. Let them use these to draw around and copy. 
After an animal has been drawn require the child to learn 
to write and spell its name, to find out something about its 
habits and uses; perhaps to write a little composition 
about it. 



8 One Hundred Devices 

47. Let the children use their own little hands for pat- 
terns and draw mittens and gloves, striped or dotted in 
various figures. 

48. Have a number of envelopes. On the outside of 
each some interesting quotation is written. Inside are bits 
of card, on each of which is some word of the quotation. 
The pupil is to put the words together to form the senti- 
ment on the outside. 

49. On the outside of envelopes have questions in geog- 
raphy or history. Inside have answers on bits of card as 
above. 

50. Have cushions made of figured material. The 
children stick pins in them following the figures. 

51. Have pupils write lists of articles found for sale in 
grocery stores. Have this list written on the board by one 
of the pupils as early in the week as possible, and let it be 
understood that on Friday afternoon a while will be spent 
in talking about these various articles, from what countries 
they come, how produced, uses, etc. This makes an agree- 
able and useful "Friday afternoon exercise" besides the 
"busy w r ork " it is for some other days in the preparation. 

52. Colored cards, bits of silk, or cards with wound 
woisted will furnish material for color lessons. Give a 
color to a pupil and have him write upon his slate a list of 
things of the same color. Have them arrange the colors in 
shades as for example the reds, the reddest red at the cen- 
ter, shading off from one side of that to the very dark, on 
the other to the lightest or pink. Let the pupils select, 
two by two, those colors that look well together. 

53. From a box of letters give a certain number for 
the pupil to arrange and re-arrange and form thus as many 
words as possible with them. He should write the word 
as soon as made and -finally show his list. Give the same 



For Busy Work. 9 

letters to several to see which can make the most words 
from them. 

51. Write questions on the board that the pupils with 
some thought and research may probably answer. Such 
books a> "Queer Queries" will help the teacher. 

55. Geographical games. — Have the class with books 
open at the map they are studying, (a.) They may make 
lists of things they see on the map, in alphabetical order. 
(£.) They may make lists, each successive name beginning 
with the last letter of the preceding one, the work being 
started by the teacher giving the same name to all. See 
who has the longest list. This exercise will brighten up. 
the geography class if it drags. 

56. Teli the children about making curiosity boxes. 
Have a good sized box and fill it with whatever curious 
things you may chance to find. Let the pupils own such 
boxes. They may bring them to school, look them over, 
count and arrange, write stories about them, etc. 

57. Select some suitable story. Cut it into fragments. 
Number the fragments and give around to the pupils. 
Have each copy his part on paper or slate. When the 
class is called to recite, having collected the fragments call 
on the pupils by number to read their parts. This makes 
a good reading exercise. 

58. Pupils tire of "studying." It is dull work some- 
times and the teacher with tact may make little plans for 
getting work done. For example, if a geography lesson 
about New York, make a diagram, thus. Expect the pu- 

"| pils to write around this square the boundaries, 
inside, any facts as to products (mineral, agricul- 
tural and manufactured), rivers, cities, mountains, 
etc. Or use the following: 



10 



One Hundred Devices 



NEW YORK. 



Boundaries. 


Rivers. 


Mountains 


Lakes. 


Cities. 


Products. 



59. A hunting expedition. Give the little children 
boxes of alphabetical letters. Call their fingers guns and 
give each letter the name of some kind of game, that you 
are to buy of them. For example, call the b's bears, the 
c's chickens, the d's ducks, p's pigeons, etc., and have the 
children see how many they can shoot (find) by the time 
you come around to see the hunters. 

60. Have the children who are learning to use diction- 
aries make lists of words ending with ff, ss, etc. See who 
has the longest list. 

61. Children who are studying languages and learning 
rules for forming plurals can make lists of words illustrat- 
ing the rules. 

62. vSentence building cards may be made of stiff 
manilla paper. Take sentences from the first reader that 
is used in the school. Rule in long stripes about one inch 
wide and write in a large plain hand sentences similar to 
this: 

Mary | has | a little white | kitten | . | 

fs | the bird | on | her nest | ? | 

Cut the stripes at the dividing lines. 

63. Place the names of familiar objects on the board 
and require sentences to be written containing these. 

64. See who can write the most about one of yester- 
day's lessons, say the history lesson. 

65. The following table placed upon the blackboard 
forms excellent seat work for classes in arithmetic: — 



For Busy Work. 



11 



6 

HO 


6 


6 


6 


G 


6 


6 





6 


6 


6 


6 


etc. 




54 




























48 




























42 




























36 




























30 
24 












































18 




























12 
6 



1 











































Only the figures at the top and bottom should be put in 
the diagram on the board. The puoils should be required 
to fill out each column on their slates, by adding 6 con- 
secutively to the numbers at the bottom of the column. 
The first column is shown as filled out. Other numbers 
may be substituted at the top and bottom. For subtraction, 
erase all of the addition except the upper number and re- 
quire pupils to subtract six consecutively, as 6o-6, 6i-6, 
65-6, 62-6, etc. 

66. Have wires or strings in some convenient place, as 
across the window or across the corner of the room. On 
them string buttons, beads or spools. Let the little ones 
stand and count them, find answers to little arithmetic 
problems by their aid, as one button from five buttons 
leaves four buttons; one half of ten buttons is five but- 
tons, etc. 



12 One Hundred Devices 

67. A set of dominos may be used for number work. 
After the lesson is recited let the children draw pictures of 
the dominos on their slates, count the spots, add and sub- 
tract, etc. 

08. Let the little folks draw borders around their 
slates by placing side by side copies of the conventional 
figures of the drawing lesson. These figures may also be 
pl.ced side by side, so that they will cover one-half or the 
whole of one side of a slate, and so form a carpet, oilcloth 
or tablecloth. 

69. Have a bundle of rulers with inches marked on 
them. They may be made of pasteboard or stiff manilla 
paper. Let the children take them to their seats and 
measure desks, books, slates, aprons, jackets, etc. 

70. Place letters of words on the board, out of order, 
and ask the pupils to find the words. 

71. Have boxes or envelopes of figures and arithmetical 
signs that the pupils may use in making tables on their desks. 

7*2. Boxes of little toys will please the children very 
much and may be used in number work in both class and 
seat work. Little toy tools, as spades, axes, etc., can be 
bought cheaply. Very small china dolls, tin spoons, etc. 

73. Rags, cut up and assorted according to color or 
material. Use in number work, for example, two woolen 
scraps and four cotton scraps are six scraps, or, two blue 
scraps and four red scraps are six scraps. Also teaches 
color. 

7-1. Pressing leaves. After being neatly pressed be- 
tween the leaves of old books, pin the leaves on sheets of 
paper and under each leaf write name of the plant or tree. 
Or they may be gummed in blank books and underneath 
or opposite write anything interesting about the leaf or 
plant it came from. 



For Busy Work. 13 

75. Circle markers. Made by cutting a strip of paste- 
board, attaching one end with a pin and putting the point 
of a pencil through at the disk of the required radius. It 
may be used for; (a) making circles of any size; (t>) making 
circles of some definite diameter; (c) circles of different di- 
ameters; (d) concentric circles; (e) concentric circles colored 
for showing the primary colors; (f) colored to show the 
colors of the rainbow. The pupils can buy very cheap 
boxes of colors or boxes of colored crayons. 

76. Write names of four-legged animals (quadrupeds), 
of two-legged animals (bipeds), of six-legged animals, of 
animals that have no legs. 

77. One day tell the children, (without previous prepa- 
ration or warning), to write names of all the things they re- 
member having seen on the way to school. Collect the 
lists, and tell them that they are to write the same to-mor- 
row. See how many more they recall at the next exercise. 
(To teach observation.) 

78. Have the children draw a picture and write a story 
about it. 

79. Write the names of animals that fly, that jump, 
that run, that swim, that creep. 

80. Write names of animals that sing, that growl, that 
howl, that talk, that laugh. 

81. Write names of different trades that men work at 
and under each the tools they use. 

82. Write a list of objects that are red, that are blue, 
that are green, etc. 

83. The teacher writes on the board a list of things of 
which the child is to tell the color, as the sky, blood, grass, 
snow, iron, silver, Mary's dress, etc. 

84. Ask the pupils to write all they can about the dif- 
ferences of any two animals, as a cow and a butterfly; also 



14 One Hundred Devices 

ask them to write all the)' can about the likenesses of any 
two animals, as a cow and a horse. 

85. Making spelling books. Let each pupil make a 
record, in a blank book, of all the new words learned each 
day. The words may be written in columns and sounds of 
letters and accent be marked from the dictionary and the 
definition written opposite. 

86. Let each pupil imagine himself to be a merchant in 
any line of trade he pleases, and make problems in regard to 
it. He should write out each problem with the greatest 
care and find the right answer to each before he hands it in. 

87. For the history class. Write a number of questions 
upon the board and as soon as the pupil thinks he has mas- 
tered, allow him to close his book and write the answer 
before class time. If he finds, on comparing with the 
book, that his work is defective, and study time has not yet 
expired, he may resume his study. 

88. Send the little ones out into the fields or school 
yard and tell them to bring you a certain number of leaves 
of plant*, or twigs from the trees, or different flowers, and 
have them tell you or write all they can about them. Let 
them make little arithmetical problems about their collec- 
tions. 

89. A school store. Let the position of proprietor or 
clerk be awarded for good conduct. Use toy money before 
mentioned, paper for muslin, calico, silk, ribbon, etc., water 
and sand for groceries. The children's ingenuity will invent 
articles. Let the store be in the corner of the room, ante- 
room, outside (in the summer), but always within view and 
hearing of the teacher. Allow its use in school hours, occa- 
sionally as a reward, or to help about the arithmetic work. 



For Busy Work. 



15 



90. Form for written parsing work: 

The good man zvill buy /he 



houSi 



La. 


g. a. 


c. n. 


i. t. v. 


l.a. 


e. n. 


" man " 


" man " 


3. p. 


a. v. 


•' house " 


3 p 






s. n. 


i. m. 




s. n. 






m. g. 


p. t. 




o. C. 






n. c. 


3i). 




"will buy" 






••will buy' 


s. n. 
"man " 







91. Sand molding. Making relief maps in sand. Putty 
moldings: using putty instead of sand. The putty maps 
may be painted. 

92. Write a neat little letter upon the blackboard and 
let the pupils copy it upon their slates. Then see if the 
copy is exact as to punctuation, etc. Few children will 
make an exact copy the first time. 

93. Anagrams. Write a word of moderate length 
upon the board and have the pupils see who can make the 
most anagrams. 

9L Making stories about numbers. For example, 
place upon the board the figures i, 2, 3, and tell them to 
make a certain number of atories using those numbers, the 
kind of work required to be suited to that the class is do- 
ing. Suppose it is addition, the child may say, "Mary had 
one apple and Jennie gave her two more, she then had 
three apples." 

95. Sand pans. Let each child have a shallow pan 
with about a pint of clean sand in it. Can be used in vari- 
ous way, in writing, drawing, numbers, molding, map 



10 



One Hundred Devices For Busy Work. 



making, etc. A great source of amusement and solid in- 
struction. 

96. Working with burrs. In the country the children 
can gather the burrs from the "dock" and other plants and 
make many things by sticking them together, such as 
houses, baskets, crosses, map-. 

97. Fastening leaves together with little sticks and 
thus making aprons, dresses, hats, sunbonnets, etc.; also 
stringing flowers on grasses for number work. Weav- 
ing grass, plaiting grass. 

9S. Molding in clay, (a) Making anything that illus- 
trates the lesson; (6) making geometrical forms, as squares, 
cubes; (c) forms of fruit, as apples, pears; (d) figures of 
animals; (e) taking impressions from leaves, etc. 

99. Crocheting scrap bags, pen wipers, mats. Patch- 
work, piecing bed-quilts, etc. 

100. Blocks about six inches each dimension. At in- 
tervals of one-half inch all over the block bore holes with 
an awl. In these holes the children can stick pegs, calling 
them trees, thus making an orchard, or they may call the 
pegs soldiers, etc. Useful in number work. Also in draw- 
ing, making designs. 







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